In the press

Weekly update

Irish Angling Update – 19/12/01

The nice mild weather for January looks set to continue as there was plenty of angling effort all over the country in the past week including the opening of a few important salmon fisheries in Co. Kerry yesterday.

Yesterday it would appear that there was a race for the first salmon in Co. Kerry between anglers fishing on Lough Currane at Waterville and fisheries in the Killarney area. There was a fine salmon of 10 lb. 8 oz. taken on the River Flesk at 10.00 am by Damien Dillon on a red flying C bait. However, ten minutes earlier, on Lough Currane, ghillie Neil O’Shea put the net under an 8.5 lb. salmon for his client Dermot Devereaux to secure the first salmon of the new season in Co. Kerry. Up on the River Drowes in Co. Donegal there were only a few rods out at the weekend on the river and while some fresh fish were sighted none were taken on the rod.

There were plenty of pike anglers out around the country at the weekend but there were reports of only small fish moving in general. However, well known angler from Dublin, who also works for Inland Fisheries Ireland in the Blackrock office, Josie Mahon showed up some well known Dublin pike anglers up at Blessington Lake when she landed a lovely 17 lb. 8 oz pike on a deadbait. Josie quickly landed the fish, photographed it and put it back carefully and wins our Catch of the Week. The only other pike were a few reported by pike guide Michael Flanagan from Mullingar who took a few fish on lures to 8 lb. from Lough Lene.

Courtown Sea Angling Club ran their annual RNLI fundraising competition on Sunday last 15th January 2012. A total of 85 anglers fished in very tough unsettled and blustery conditions. Despite this, lots of fish were caught and species included coalies, flounder, dabs and rockling. The Leinster league and EFSA Festival were announced for the coming two weeks and we will have reports from both events in coming weeks.

Down in Cobh, the Light Lines series continues in Cork Harbour from this weekend and good catches of codling are expected to dominate the fishing.

There was some nice Rainbow Trout reported from the Curragh Springs near Newbridge at the weekend. Small black Klinkhammer and Adams dry flies accounted for most of the fish.

Finally, IFI staff seized 45 bass and over 1000m of net in a fisheries protection operation on Wednesday last.

With the mild weather looking set to continue, there should be plenty of fishing activity at the weekend in particular.